The Following
by xfmoon
Summary: Jane has made an exciting discovery and wants to share it with Lisbon.


**Spoilers:** Not really any for The Mentalist, but for all The Following epis so far, and just FYI it's a great show, so go watch it. Plus there's a very small mention of The X-Files.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own either show.

* * *

If the door had been closed he would have probably run straight into it, he was that excited. Fortunately for him, her office door had been open. He crash landed on her couch and exclaimed excitedly: _"I GOT IT! I GOT IT! I FOUND IT!"_

She looked at him sideways: _"Calm down Jane. What is it that you've found?"_

_"THE reason." _He said with added emphasis.

He'd piqued her interest, he was seldom this excited for nothing, and she wanted to know why, without letting anything on, so she went for a nonchalant question. _"For?"_

_"Not for, to." _He corrected her.

She rolled her eyes at him. _"To what?"_

_"To not arrest Red John, but to kill him instead." _His voice was even as he said it.

_"I thought you already had a reason to do that."_ She said sarcastically.

_"Not for me, for you."_ He said like it was no big deal.

_"For me? Really?" _She didn't know he'd been looking for a reason on her behalf, so she was mildly surprised.

_"Yes."_

Now she was genuinely curious. _"And what could that reason be, I wonder?"_

_"The Following."_

_"The Following?" _She repeated, having no idea what he was talking about.

_"Yes, The Following." _He sounded like it was something everybody should know about. Well she didn't.

_"Okay, you've lost me." _

A smile played on his lips. _"Lisbon, do you mean to say you don't follow the Following."_

He was making a joke, and she had no clue what he was on about. It annoyed her. _"Cut it out, Jane. I have work to do." _

_"But really this is a legitimate reason."_ He sounded like he meant it.

_"Then let me have it." _She demanded.

He began his tale_. "So there's this man, who escapes from prison and..."_

_"Red John will never escape when we get him." _She interjected.

_"Jeez woman, don't interrupt me." _He sounded a bit irked.

_"Sorry." _She said, throwing her hands up in a surrendering gesture._ "Go on then."_

_"Okay…, so he goes out and together with some friends he kills his last victim - who had managed to escape him before he went to jail. Then, he gets caught and taken back to jail, but..." _He made a dramatic pause._ "The real singer is, the killings continue."_

_"So his friends keep killing for him. Is that what you're saying?"_

_"Yes exactly." _She was a quick study, he'd give her that.

_"But we already know Red John has minions all over, willing to kill and even die for him, that doesn't change anything." _

Of course he knew that, and it _did_ change things. _"But don't you see, even __**if**__ we arrest him, put him in jail and throw away the key, he'll still find ways to communicate and keep on killing via his friends."_

_"And you think killing him would stop his followers from killing also? I don't think it's that easy Jane. The others will be out there regardless. All we can do is catching them all, one by one. And having just one of them behind bars means one less person out there killing, which in total means fewer killings."_ She sighed._ "It'll never stop. That's why we're here."_

_"No you don't understand, Lisbon. If you cut off the head of the snake it'll die, even if it's a slow death, eventually it __**will**__ die. But put it in a cage and it'll still be able to eat and grow, it'll still have the ability to spread its poison if you get too close."_

_"What's your point?" _She sounded unimpressed by his analogy.

_"Every day Red John's not caught he can gain new followers, and every day spent in jail he'll be able to give them directions. To lead them." _He didn't mean to but he sounded fearful.

_"But hypothetically if he was killed, who's to say that that wouldn't increase his following. I mean killing a man with a powerful message has been a winner a few times. __He could become a martyr." _She had a point and he knew that.

But as always he had a counterpoint. _"Not as long as his message involves death. Sure it'll attract a certain kind of people, but people like that needs someone to guide them, they don't have minds to think for themselves, the "cult" if you will, would collapse."_

_"But what if one of these people that it attracts has the necessary leadership skills, what then?" _

_"Then you'll have Visualize!" _He smiled, but he was only half joking.

_"Jaaane." _She whined resignedly.

_"Lisbon. I'm telling you prison won't do any good. You'll have to trust me." _There he went again with the topic of trust, boiling it down to something less significant than it should be.

She made a face._ "So what happened to the man you were telling me about? And where did you hear about him anyway?" _

_"Ehm, it only just started, it haven't gotten that far but...eh." _He was hesitant.

And that's when something dawned on her. _"Wait a minute, are you telling me, what I think you are telling me?"_

_"That depends, what do you think I'm telling you?" _Great and now he answered questions with questions.

_"Quit that!" _She hissed. _"It's a TV show, isn't it?" _She should have known, should have seen this coming.

_"Yes."_ He briefly looked away, guiltily._ "But that doesn't mean that it doesn't hold some semblance of truth."_

_"I don't believe this. Jane, it's a TV show for God sakes. It's nothing more than some mind-numbing entertainment, made to..."_

_"...control the masses."_ He cockily finished the sentence for her._ "Shame Lisbon, the film industry is not a Russian propaganda tool." _

_"What? No! That's not what I was gonna say." _Once again he had succeeded in perplexing her.

_"But seriously Lisbon. This guy, the killer, the serial killer, he's smart, a professor. His weapon of choice is a knife and he even has a calling card, he carves people's eyes out. And he has an obsession with Poe, as in Edgar Allan Poe, the writer and poet. Who else do we know that is smart and obsessed with a poet?"_

_"Red John." _She said flatly.

_"Precisely. Lisbon I think we need to check out the writers, or editors, or directors... of this show." _He stopped himself before he could mention all the possible jobs you could have in the movie business._ "There could be someone connected to Red John working there, I'm almost certain."_

_"Why not check out everyone while we're at it?"_ She said sarcastically, running along with his crazy ideas._ "Just question and arrest anyone who has ever worked with or for the people doing this particular show."_

_"You are mocking me."_ He sulked.

_"Yes Jane, you are very observant. And you're also being paranoid. Not everything connects back to Red John. And this is kinda a thin lead. Do you get enough sleep?"_

The rapid shift in the conversation took him a little of guard, but he deflected her with his answer. _"My sleep patterns don't concern you. But can't you see it, Lisbon?"_

_"I don't see anything Jane, and anything you think you see is just coincidences." _ She was getting increasingly tired of listening to his insane theories all day long.

_"There are no such things as coincidences. And besides '__if coincidences are just coincidences why do they feel so contrived?'" He quoted. _

_"Deep. Is that Shakespeare?"_

_"No, X-Files." _He said with a twinkle in his eyes.

She shook her head. _"You watch too much TV Jane, it's not healthy."_

He knew she was just concerned, but that didn't stop his words from sounding just a tad bitter. _"And what's your idea of healthy? Staring at a big pile of paperwork all day? No thank you. At least I'm learning something useful."_

Her grumpiness seemed to surface, either that or his bitter tone was infectious. _"If you call crap like that useful, then sure. It's conspiracy theories at best. They might as well make a show about __**you**__ then. Call it the mentalist or something."_

_"They have. That's what I'm telling you. It's this one, with minor differences, yes, but still..." _ He was trying to reassert his claims.

_"Jane, there is limits to Red John's reach. No one man is almighty."_ Being a believer in a deity herself, she'd just undermined her own faith, but that wasn't important. No the important thing was that she was right, Red John might be a puppet master, but he didn't hold all the strings.

_"Maybe not." _He admitted._ "But I still think there is something there worth checking out."_

She swore sometimes he was like a dog with a bone, and when he was like that it didn't help to argue her point. _"If you find me some concrete evidence of any wrongdoing, then I'll consider investigating these people. However until then they're just incredible creative people who seem to be fascinated by blood and gore and inspired by some real events, like so many before them, they're nothing more and nothing less. Am I clear, Jane?"_

_"Yes Ma'am." _He saluted her. _"I will find it. You know I will." _That man, always so sure of himself.

_"If there is something there, I'm sure you will." _She conceded._ "But I will not condone your misguided quest for revenge based on a show you saw on TV." _

_"Yes you will. Eventually you will, and when that happens you will make the right choice." _He turned and was out the door as fast as he'd entered, before she could even open her mouth to argue.

_'Oh well'_ she thought. He had been known to influence her decisions in the past, but she would never do anything that went against her better judgment. Would she? There was no doubt she was going to make the right choice, but that didn't mean _**he**_ was going to like it. They wouldn't know until they were actually in the situation. They would just have to wait and see what happened when that time came.

* * *

**A/N:** I have only put this in The Mentalist category, because I don't feel like it would go as a crossover as I've only just mentioned The Following and its plot as it is.

So anyways, I thought there were some obvious similarities between these two shows, and my mind just came up with this. I hope you liked it :)


End file.
